Nightwhisper
by V. Thomas
Summary: One lone she-cat. One blizzard-filled afternoon. This was how Nightkit's life began.


**This story was requested by Nightwhisper* of the Warrior Cats Forum. I no longer possess the information that was given to me, but give all character credit to Nightwhisper*.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Warriors series.**

* * *

One lone she-cat. One blizzard-filled afternoon. This was how Nightkit's life began.

Born to Morningsong, a long-haired golden she-cat with blue eyes, she hardly resembled her mother in anything but build. Instead, Nightkit was her father's shadow. Black fur, green eyes, a level head... She was undeniably Stormheart's daughter in every respect. Her Clanmates believed the snowstorm she was born in would make her a hardy cat, just like her young deputy father, and she loved this comparison.

"Teach me to hunt, Stormheart!" she often begged as a kit. It took everything in her father's power to refuse, and when Oakstar, the burly brown leader of CaveClan finally apprenticed her to Bluedapple, he was just as relieved as his mate to know that Nightpaw was being apprenticed to the Clan's finest hunter. In addition, Nightpaw was already a steadfast friend to Whitepaw, a clever young she-cat.

The two she-cats trained almost incessantly with their mentors. Bluedapple passed along her hunting techniques, and Hawkflight taught them as many battle tactics as he could. Whitepaw's brother, Snowpaw, often joined them, his mentor close behind.

After some time as apprentices, Nightpaw and Whitepaw had a falling-out, although neither of them was quite sure over what. Nightpaw turned more and more frequently to Snowpaw, while Whitepaw and Creekpaw became inseparable. Creekpaw soon became Creeksong, not a moon after the argument, and Nightpaw, Snowpaw, and Whitepaw were joined in the apprentices' den by Rushpaw and Redpaw.

Nightpaw would have remained an apprentice a little longer than she had if it wasn't for the rogue attack.

A vicious band of rogues, led by a slender grey she-cat calling herself Saviour, flooded the CaveClan camp on a night of no moon. They took the camp by total surprise, and quite a few cats were lost that night, including Morningsong.

The golden queen had died for her mate, saving him from a brutal assault by throwing herself in the way. Nightpaw watched this happen, and earned her warrior name that night because she quietly rounded up the other apprentices and exacted her revenge upon her mother's killer, taking his life without so much as a word to him as he lay dying.

Once the rogues had been driven out, the wounded treated, and the dead prepared for vigil, Oakstar called a Clan meeting. He praised the dead for their valiant efforts, with a particular mention to Rushpaw. The leader's son had died attacking a rogue twice his size in order to assist Littlefeather, the medicine cat.

Oakstar then went on to thank the living, and he named three new warriors: Whitepool, Snowshadow, and Nightwhisper. They sat their vigil that night not only with one another for company, but with the dead and their surviving family.

CaveClan steadily recovered in the moons following the attack, with new kits being born, apprentices being made, and warriors retiring to the elders' den. Whitepool eventually moved into the nursery, and it was no secret that Thornwing was the father. As she moved in, Creeksong moved out, her kits having been apprenticed. One of those kits, Icepaw, was Nightwhisper's first apprentice, and she mentored the little grey she-cat alongside Snowshade, who was Patchpaw's mentor.

Nightwhisper decided that she had never felt true satisfaction until the day Icepaw and Patchpaw were made warriors. Having grown extremely close to Snowshadow over the seasons, she proudly stood next to the grey and white warrior, calling the names of the cats she had helped mentor. Snowshadow did the same, and his tail twined gently with hers.

He asked Nightwhisper if she loved him later that night, his eyes hopeful. The black she-cat couldn't say no, didn't want to, and it wasn't very long until the whole of CaveClan, particularly Stormheart noticed how in love they really were. The deputy himself was proud of his daughter, so happy for her.

This happiness did not last long.

When Bluedapple, then an elder, lost her battle with greencough, Littlefeather desperately tried to contain and outbreak. She failed, and one by one, cats fell ill and died, Oakstar and Stormheart among them. StarClan, however, was not done taking lives and cruelly twisting others.

Before they could have kits, Snowshadow was taken by the outbreak, his case the worst Littlefeather had seen. Nightwhisper was heartbroken, but she went on to become leader at the medicine cat's urging.

"StarClan whispered to me last night," the grey tabby had explained. "Night. Whispers! You are CaveClan's next leader!"

Giving in to the Littlefeather's urging and omens, Nightwhisper received her nine lives. Her mother, father, and mate were among the cats granting her her leadership.

"Nightstar, Nightstar!" cats rasped upon her return to camp. As weak as they were, they supported her, even Whitepool.

Time passed. Nightstar mentored a couple more apprentices, named warriors and two deputies (the second of which took her place), and lost lives to various accidents and illnesses. Snowshadow was always on her mind up until the day she died.

Her death was an accident, really. She had been outside camp, simply basking in the sunlight, when she heard the petrified mewl of a kit. Lifting her nose to the wind, she recognized the scent as that of Whitepool's youngest son, Rowankit, and she raced toward his cries.

The young tom was trapped between some rocks, no doubt due to a tumble down the rocky slope during his forbidden excursion from camp. Nightstar scrambled up to him, and after a few minutes of shifting rocks and keeping her balance on the narrow ledges, she was finally able to free Rowankit.

However, freeing him sealed her fate. When the tabby tom stopped to rest on a flat rock, Nightstar looked up over her shoulder and saw a boulder come loose. Eyes wide, she urged Whitepool's kit to run, and as she made to escape, a rock fell on her, crushing her final life. As it fell, her last prayer was that Whitepool would see her death as an apology, simply because she had died for the little tom.

"She'll forgive you," Snowshadow promised when he greeted her in StarClan's fields. "I promise."


End file.
